Batteries will have a limited number of charges. The referee should track charges secretly.

Design Notes

Each PC begins play with:

Two sets of travelling clothes

Backback

Belt pouch

Water skin

3 empty sacks (for loot, of course)

2d10 gp

Additional equipment is rolled on the equipment table above (4d20, as specified).

Any class can use any weapon or armor (though armor decreases movement through encumbrance and penalizes actions requiring fine motor control); characters do dH damage.

Using 2dH to select weapons creates a probability curve.

The most common weapons by dH:

d4: dagger, followed by slings and quarterstaffs

d6: crossbow, followed by quarterstaff and short sword

d8: long sword, followed by short sword and short bow

It is only possible for classes with dH = d8 to begin with the heaviest military weapons, or to begin with any bulky weapons.

Armor possibilities by dH:

d4: no armor through leather & shield

d6: no armor through chain & shield

d8: no armor through plate & shield

Also note that in many systems, 10 minus (armor dH roll) = AC. Though not important, this is a pleasant symmetry.

Any character may try to pick locks using a set of lock picks. Non-thieves have a flat 1 in 6 chance, adjusted by dexterity. That is, a character with extraordinary dexterity (13 or higher) has a 2 in 6 chance.

Thanks! I am, piece by piece, trying to streamline character generation as much as possible. This will ultimately lead to a collected set of house rules. The end goal is to emphasize that interesting choices happen mostly during game play rather than before game play.